WORLD HEADLINES

The cold Aegean Sea claimed the lives of two more migrant children early Thursday, sparking protests in Greece as the UN warned another 600,000 people could arrive by February. The Greek coastguard said the children died off the island of Kos hours before Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Parliament chief Martin Schulz began a visit to neighbouring Lesbos, another migration flashpoint. “A crime is committed in the Aegean (Sea)

By Denis Dumo JUBA (Reuters) – A Russian-built cargo plane with passengers on board crashed on Wednesday after taking off from the airport in South Sudan’s capital, killing dozens of people, witnesses said. The precise death toll was not immediately clear after the Antonov-12 B plane turbo prop plane crashed soon after take off, leaving chunks of wreckage, bodies and cargo strewn along a bank of the White Nile River.

By Mubasher Bukari LAHORE, Pakistan (Reuters) – At least 18 people were killed and up to 150 trapped on Wednesday when a factory collapsed near the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials said, adding to a number of industrial disasters to hit the South Asian nation. Rescue workers digging for survivors with construction equipment have recovered 40 injured people so far, said Mohammed Younis Bhatti, an information officer with Edhi

By Yeganeh Torbati KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – As the United States and Japan tussled with China over the wording of a concluding statement at an Asian security meeting in Kuala Lumpur this week, caught in the middle was host Malaysia. Plans for a joint statement were eventually dropped by the Malaysian government because of disagreements over the disputed South China Sea. U.S. and Japanese officials wanted to address Beijing’s island-building.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday held a phone call in which they discussed ways for the international community to help support efforts to end the Syria crisis, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Their discussion included ways to form a united Syrian opposition delegation so as to swiftly improve Syrian national political dialogue and to consolidate positions on fighting terrorism,

Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate dismissed in an audio message on Wednesday doubts that it had downed a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all aboard, and said it would tell the world how it did so in its own time. Sinai Province, an Egyptian group loyal to Islamic State, said in a statement the same day that it had brought down the airliner “in response to Russian air

Islamic State’s Egyptian affiliate dismissed in an audio message on Wednesday doubts that it had downed a Russian passenger plane over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, killing all aboard, and said it would tell the world how it did so in its own time. Sinai Province, an Egyptian group loyal to Islamic State, said in a statement the same day that it had brought down the airliner “in response to Russian air

Brazil’s government has fine-tuned arguments aimed at defending President Dilma Rousseff from a ruling that her administration manipulated federal accounts last year, and expects Congress to approve them, Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner said on Wednesday. The Federal Accounts Court, or TCU, last month said the government had manipulated its accounts in 2014 to disguise a widening fiscal deficit as Rousseff, a leftist, campaigned for re-election, and recommended lawmakers reject

Brazil’s government has fine-tuned arguments aimed at defending President Dilma Rousseff from a ruling that her administration manipulated federal accounts last year, and expects Congress to approve them, Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner said on Wednesday. The Federal Accounts Court, or TCU, last month said the government had manipulated its accounts in 2014 to disguise a widening fiscal deficit as Rousseff, a leftist, campaigned for re-election, and recommended lawmakers reject

MADRID (AP) — Three anti-independence parties filed complaints Wednesday with Spain’s Constitutional Court against moves by secessionist parties with a majority in the regional parliament of Catalonia to announce the formal start of an effort to break away from Spain.